Simon Yates (Mitchelton-Scott) won the second of three successive summit finishes in the Vuelta a Espana. In so doing he regained the leader’s red jersey from Jesus Herrada (Cofidis) who was dropped long before the final climb and lost nine minutes.
The 171km mountain stage from Cistierna to Les Praeres featured a steep uncategorised climb early on and former race leader Michal Kwiatkowski (Sky) – now five minutes back in the general classification – made use of it to surge clear.
He was joined in the day’s break by five other riders, including Michael Woods, Nicolas Roche and Thomas de Gendt.
Their advantage topped out at about four minutes before a strong turn by Vincenzo Nibali, working for Bahrain-Merida team-mate Ion Izagirre, brought it down. Kwiatkowski was the last man caught near the foot of the 4km 12.5% final climb.
It was a nasty finish which would have been steep enough even if the road surface hadn’t been a combination of concrete and gravel.
Various overall contenders tried their luck on the slope, including Nairo Quintana and Steven Kruijswijk, but Yates’ attack inside the final kilometre proved the most meaningful.
“I chose my moment really well there in the final,” he said. “I didn’t look back until it flattened off a little bit. I had a bit of a gap so just gave it everything to the line.”
Yates finished two seconds ahead of Miguel Angel Lopez and Alejandro Valverde and leads the latter by 20s overall with the Spaniard’s Movistar team-mate Quintana five seconds further back in third.
On two occasions I've stopped cyclists on the Bristol to Bath Railway Path because their forks were the wrong way round, and corrected them for...
£52 of sale price is so impressive, when you see some companies giving small %age of profits from sales to similar initiatives. Well done Galibier!
If drivers routinely get away with this then how the hell do MPs like this expect it to work for bikes?...
I'm all for my overall experience being enhanced.
When was the submission? I have been informed by the Met that although they have to send an NIP within fourteen days they then have up to six...
Try getting hit by 2 tonnes of metal moving at speed and tell me that half an inch of polystyrene (with holes cut in it) will make any real...
While I agree, not all bike fitters are equal. I found their know-how varies enormously—some are considerably more expert than others.
Now on my PC it says again that I don't have a subscription. I ask you to indicate what should be done to avoid this situation.
Like Hawkinspeter, I am a bit of a tool squirrel. I bought one of these. It is really neat and well made, but I've found it rather confusing to use...
Or the people you follow don't know how to setup their derailleur....